Upon taking office, Mikhail Gorbachev was met with a Soviet Union in despair. The economy was sagging. Industrial and agricultural output was very low. There was essentially no easy way for the country to catch up to other major countri

es of the world. He wanted to convince major players in the world's economics that the Soviet Union was no longer a threat. His first effort was to input a set of psychological incentives on the citizens. He encouraged them to do their best, because the entire country would prosper by one person's good deeds. He tried to improve the working class's attitude about work. And increase their loyalty. When this system seemed to fail, Gorbachev knew that he must take a better, firmer approach. He introduced his policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness).

In 1990, the Soviet Union itself began to unravel. It's own republics began to issue declarations of independence. Strikes shattered the claim that the Communist party was representative of worker's rights. Demonstrations against the government and the party intensified. The economy worsened, food shortages became a problem, and the crime rate began to skyrocket. Gorbachev was caught between a rock and a hard place. He was unable to satisfy the people's demands for radical reform and the party's demands for strict control. The following summer, the radical reform movements became strong enough to openly defy the government. Gorbachev was openly criticized in the press. Yeltsin won in the June elections for the presidency. A coup ensued, Gorbachev gave way, and the Soviet Union was in a state of emergency. Once the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Soviet Union, Soviet Union's, Independent December, Nikita Khruschev, USSR Afghanistan, , soviet union, Peace Prize, Mikhail Gorbachev, government gorbachev, radical reform, introduced policies,
Approximate Word count = 936
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)